Saturday, February 6, 2010

Earlier in my career as a paramedic, I've treated injuries that were the direct result of carelessness with a firearm. One case that stands out was a bird hunter that had leaned his shotgun up against a tree and walked away from it. Well he didn't have the saftey on and it fell over and went off. The gentleman ended up with a chest and face full of #6 shot. He survived but lost an eye.We're taught in hunter safety classes about the importance safe firearm handling. Perhaps these hunters were not paying attention during that part of the class. Personally, I leave my safety on until a second before I pull the trigger.Remember:Treat every firearm as if it is loadedAlways keep the muzzle pointed away from you.Be sure your firearm is in good working condition.Be aware of what's beyond your target/decoys.KEEP YOUR SAFETY ON!!!Alcohol/drugs and firearms don't mix.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

We have all taken advantage, as hunters, of the land that has been provided for the public at one point or another. Many times its even better than a given piece of private land. But I have personally witnessed, as many of you fellow hunters have, another hunter or group of hunters treating the land as though its gonna repair itself and take care of what they have left behind. Through the years I have always wondered what those people are thinking as they leave their spot in the cattails or a stubble field a cluttered mess of cans and shell boxes and empties. What they must not realize is that that stuff just doesnt disappear on its own, it finds its way into the water or strewn about the field. If that was their piece of private land it would be a cold day down below if any of that happened on thier land. So why do they think its alright to do it to an area that belongs to the rest of us? When I go out in the morning and get up on a spot and find cans or shell boxes or random garbage it just disgusts me to see that kind of thing. It seems to be happeneing more and more and if it continues that spot that was once open to the public could be restricted because of the lack of respect for the land. And its people like that that ruin it for the rest of us who rely on those public spots for their season. Just ask yourself next time you go out, "Would I do this if this piece of land belonged to me?", and take that 5 extra minutes to pick up eveything that wasnt there before you and leave it as you found it and you will know that you have done your part in preserving the land for years to come.

This contest will run between now and March 1st, 2010. After March 1st we will pick the top 6 and let you our fans vote to decide the top 3.

The top 3 will win prizes: First prize will win 30 Junkie dollars or a sweatshirt. Second prize will be 20 Junkie dollars or a long sleeve T-shirt. Third prize will be 10 Junkie dollars or your choice of a Junkie short sleeve T-shirt or a decal.

Submittal of photos grants Duck Junkies the use/distribution of the photo(s).

You can enter as many photos as you wish.

Good luck to all who enter!

**********

VOTING IS CURRENTLY OPEN FOR JANUARY'S CONTEST:Define a Duck JunkieVisit the Facebook Fan Page to vote!

Well it is a sad, sad time. The WV waterfowl season is now over. On a good note, we had a great season. We finished this past weekend with 9 Geese and 6 Ducks bringing the total to 64 ducks and 32 geese. I have hunted in Eastern WV for 10 years now and this year held the best variety of ducks that we have ever seen. Our bag included GWT, Woodies, Black Ducks, Widgeon, and Mallards. It may not sound like a lot to some but prior to 2008 we only had Mallards and Mergansers with the occasional Black Duck. The Black Ducks were everywhere this year. This is a good sign for the years coming...hopefully. It seems like they are making somewhat of a comeback. This was also the first year that we have seen Teal in our area. The Blue Winged Teal moved out fast during early season as expected but the Green Winged Teal stayed all season and are still there. We have had a pair of Widgeon before but this year they came in decent numbers during the late season. The goose hunting was also good. Early season goose was excellent and we had a good finisher during the last two days to close out the WV waterfowl season. Now it is time to break out the fishing gear. Deep Dropping for Blueline Tilefish is right around the corner and Tuna will be soon after that.

Well this was the worst possible weekend for it to decide to dump snow, ice and sleet all over the mid south. Since I am still shopping for a truck that has off road capabilities I was unable to leave my house. It was just too dangerous for me to leave in a rear wheel drive vehicle when everything is coated in ice. I talked to everyone I could that did hunt though.My friends in Wynne Arkansas killed 40 something for the weekend, and a few people tried to hunt east Tennessee but the ice was too thick for these skinny guys to break. I shot a wood duck off of my back porch while cooking steaks(my mom asked me to cook steaks on the grill so i decided to take my gun in case some Canadians or woodies got up off of my neighbors pond and they did but only one wood duck made the mistake to get close enough)

Since I had nothing better to do I went ahead and made 100 new Texas rags to add to my decoy spread this weekend I am not one with great amounts of money so a giant full body spread isn't an option all though i would love to have one! My snow goose spread includes: Texas rags, shells, silhouettes that lay on the ground as well as ones that stand up so that the geese never lose sight of them even when flying over head. Hopefully a few of my good friends will join me and we will ave a good time trying to kill some snow geese.Cade Patton

First off I would like to thank Duckjunkies.com for letting me be a part of the Prostaff. I am looking forward to meeting new people and hopefully gaining more knowledge in the world of waterfowling.

I went this past weekend for the closer of the Balance of State region season here in NorCal. I was excited to go because we had a 2 week weather system prior to this weekend and we were supposed to be getting another one. Luck would have it that the 2 days I decide to go hunting, they are bluebird days. I got sunburned both days it was so warm out. Literally 65 degrees outside. Those are the times that I wish I was back home in Minnesota hunting. I miss the cold weather.

Saturday looked promising early with alot of ducks working without any fog. Since this was the first season hunting in this particular area we are still trying to study duck moving habits. The tide plays alot of factors in the movement of the ducks (Something I would have never had to worry about hunting in MN).

By 8:30 we had 4 (2 teal, bull sprig, widgeon) We were trying to compete against another hunter where all the ducks were just dumping into. We couldn't figure out why they wouldn't commit to our deeks. After 2 more hours, we had a total of 6 with the addition of 2 more teal. After packing up I told my friend Sam to go check out what was on the other side of the levee so we could see what was so spectacular for the ducks to just flock to. We initially thought it was a private club but we never saw any signs so we gave it a go. Upon coming into the march, it was like duck heaven. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. The cover, the vegetation, its no wonder why they only looked once at us before going to hang out with the rest of the ducks. Come to find out it was not a private club and totally accessible by boat for us to get to. I learned then to never assume things and go and explore to find new areas. This gave a renewed hope for the last day of season.

Sunday we had a low fog cover, 5 mph wind and we were really excited to go hunt this new pond.We arrived in our new "spot" with tide going out. We never thought for a second to think about the tide and the fact that it going out would mean that we might get stuck with the boat. Well considering the tide can fluctuate up to 7 ft, we got set and right after sun up...we were in about 6 in of water. We took it as it came and just tried to enjoy the last day of season. By 10am we limited as the ducks came from the big water into the pond like we anticipated. Only thing, we had to wait for tide to come back in so we could get out. After having such a successful morning, we took it as a chance to tell each other old hunting stories and enjoy the area. We called in ducks and just watched them swim in our deeks. Tide came in and we had successfully completed a phenomenal last day of the season.

Lesson 1 for next year: Don't assume something a new area is a closed area to huntLesson 2 for next year: Carry a Tide Table book with us before we go out!! LOL